FIGJAM Uses Tiger's Old Coach To Whoop Him

Last month, Phil "FIGJAM" Mickelson announced that he was switching hitting coaches, and going with Butch Harmon, former teacher of Greg Norman & Tiger Woods, instead of his longtime coach and friend, Rick Smith.

Of course one of the biggest questions following the switch was whether or not it would help Mickelson beat Tiger. When I heard of the switch I had a feeling that Mickelson would find great joy in beating Tiger after taking pointers from his old hitting coach, and yesterday Phil seemed to be full of joy. Though, winning $1.62 million will tend to do that to you.

Yes, the switch has seemed to pay off, at least in the immediate results. Yesterday Mickelson won The Players Championship by two-strokes, and moved up to the #2 ranking in the world.

Tiger finished #37, and won $38,700. That's 36 places and $1,581,300 behind Mickelson.

Obviously it's still too early to tell if Mickelson will really be able to beat Tiger with any consistency, especially since Woods doesn't typically play well at the TPC at Sawgrass. However, it certainly adds another storyline to the U.S. Open that will be teeing off in three weeks.